Belgium has reportedly requested a six-month extension to implement an EU directive on pay transparency designed to reduce the gender pay gap that still exists in many workplaces.
According to Eurostat, women in the EU earn on average 12% less per hour than men. To address this problem, the EU issued a directive in 2023 obliging member states to enforce pay transparency.
This means that companies have to be fully transparent about their employees' wages, and employees will have the right to ask about the average salaries of colleagues in similar roles.
The new EU rules are supposed to come into force in all EU member states on Sunday, 7 June. However, according to Het Laatste Nieuws, the Belgian Federal Government – along with the majority of EU member states – is not yet ready to implement them.
'Unanswered questions'
In a letter addressed to the European Commission, Minister for Employment David Clarinval (MR) and Minister for Equal Opportunities Rob Beenders (Vooruit) explained that “social partners in Belgium have not yet reached an agreement” on the directive.
The ministers have requested a six-month extension from the Commission, citing “unanswered questions” from Belgian employers and trade unions. By sending the letter, the government is hoping to avoid fines from the EU for failing to implement the guidelines.
Thirty key unanswered questions about the directive were set out in an annex to the ministers’ letter, concerning, among other things, data protection (GDPR), the scope of pay to be taken into account, and the retroactive nature of the directive.
GDPR rules are a particular cause for concern. According to Clarinval, the new pay transparency guidelines conflict with data protection regulations. “It is impossible to reconcile the two,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws.
“For instance, what about a construction company where mainly men work and only two women? In that case, one woman could well find out the other’s salary, because averages must be shared by gender.”
Commission should 'step out of its bubble'
Despite these concerns, the minister said he was “100% committed to the goal of reducing the gender pay gap” and called the implementation of the European directive “very important”. However, he called on the Commission to "step out of its bubble and provide concrete answers, otherwise we will not be able to apply the directive".
The new directive is said to be particularly unpopular among the right-wing parties in the federal coalition. Some have pointed out that Belgium has the second smallest gender wage gap in the EU, after Luxembourg.
There are also concerns that Belgian companies will not be able to handle the extra administrative burden involved in implementing the directive.
MP Axel Ronse (N-VA) has advocated suspending the rules on wage transparency until Europe has “found a solution to the larger problem of competitiveness”.
